Pain that rapidly worsens and then starts to ease up
You are probably not dealing with gout if you have been waking up every morning with stiff, painful knees. Pain associated with gout tends to rapidly worsen from zero to 80 in less than 24 hours.
Some people go to sleep feeling perfectly fine and then wake up during the night or in the early morning with intense pain. Gout-related pain tends to strike as intense flares that disappear within a few days. Months or years can go by between one and second acute gouty attack. However, if you left your gout untreated, the flares can occur more frequently, begin to affect more joints at the same time, and may become more intense and debilitating.
Compared to other inflammatory joint conditions, patients often have no symptoms and feel fine during the periods between gout flares.